


The Towel Debacle(s)

by kimmins



Series: Snip Snip [3]
Category: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Implied Masturbation, Misbehaving towels, Pre-Relationship, the rowdy 3 being a little familiy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 08:49:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14712947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimmins/pseuds/kimmins
Summary: Amanda and Martin both deal with some towel mishaps and Amanda makes a move.





	The Towel Debacle(s)

**Author's Note:**

> Not beta'ed - please excuse my typos and shit.
> 
> Amazing art work from my partner for this event, Lindigo:  
> [https://lindigo.tumblr.com/post/174062330768/keep-them-eyes-up-drummer-girl-scene-from](url)

It was rather bright and sunny for Seattle when a familiar beat to shit van had pulled up to the Biltmore, engine growling in greeting to the quiet blank faced building and the sleepy  neighborhood. After a minute or two the engine cut off and seconds later five howling, yelling balls of chaos and destruction piled out. One rainbow haired Beast trailed behind them eager to join in on the fun. Much more slowly to climb out of the van was a dark haired young woman. She hitched a duffle over her shoulders and followed the others into the old, mostly abandoned building.

 

Amanda, and subsequently the Rowdy 3, had made it a point to come back to Seattle after Farah had been kind enough to give her the former Spring property.

 

She might have said it was so The Rowdy 3 would have a place of their own to stay if they ever wandered back to town but Amanda was pretty damn sure it was really so she’d visit more often. Of course poor Farah was going to be stuck with Dirk and her brother and would be desperate to have the only other sane person involved in all this Universe business keep in contact.

 

So Amanda had agreed. And it turned out to be a pretty sweet gift.

 

Farah had been very clear that the boys were free to do whatever they wanted to the inside of the building short of burning the damn thing down or causing structural damage as long as they kept the outside relatively nice. Mostly so the neighbors, and the city, wouldn’t complain.   

 

And that’s exactly what they did.

 

Martin and the others took so much joy in running through the apartment building smashing and breaking things, exploring the weird death maze that Spring had built for Todd and Dirk and then being able to just crash wherever they wanted that first time they visited that there were no arguments whenever Amanda suggested that they head back that way.

 

This time had been no different. It had taken a few days driving but eventually they had made it. And her boys were ready to burn off all the excess energy being cooped up in the van for the past day or so had built up.

 

There would be plenty of mayhem going on for the next few hours so as soon as they were all in the building Amanda had to call them to a stop before they all scattered like manic rats in a maze. It was always best to make sure they remembered the house rules before anyone got into trouble.

 

When she asked, four of them droned out the rules like school children asked to recite their times tables by their mean old teacher, the fifth did her best to follow along.

 

“No fire. No structural damage. No water damage,” they all said, voices merging into a single sound like the close knit family they were. Even their tone was the same, bored and over eager to get on with it.

“And?” Amanda prompted when they trailed off before the end of the list.

 

“And no bullshit in the Den.” All of the chanted, deadpan. Each of them giving her a shit eating grin as they remembered the first time they messed with the Den.

 

“That’s right. No bullshit in the Den. Which is where I am going to be. I need a hot shower so I don’t want any of you crazy assholes bothering me for the next hour. Is that understood?” she asked, tone stern but with her lips quirked up in a playful smile.

 

“Yes ma’am,” they all responded, smiles on their own faces and in the case of Cross jaunty little salute to go with it. But Amanda could see they were already fidgeting and twitching, eager to go despite their humoring of her.

 

She couldn’t help but laugh as she said, “Ok, ok. Go. Have fun!” as she shooed them off. Martin shot her a quick wink and a she got peck on the cheek from Gripps before they all fucked off to parts unknown.

 

But before they all disappeared from sight Amanda yelled out one last reminder “Don't break anything important!” even though she was pretty sure none of them had heard her over their yelling and cheering. And in a matter of seconds they had scattered off to fuck knew where, their sounds of destruction and mayhem already echoing through the empty building.

 

Sighing to herself and softly shaking her head in amusement Amanda made her way up to Todd’s old apartment to shower.

 

The studio that had once been her brother’s was the one safe haven from the destructive rowdiness of the others. And she made damn sure of it. There needed to be one place that they could all come to relax and sleep if they wanted.

 

Though originally she had claimed the studio as her own because she assumed the others would claim their own spaces given all the empty apartments in the building. Which was admittedly silly of her. She should have known that her rowdy boys would want to sleep near each other. And apparently her because no matter where she slept the others would all eventually end up in a huge dog pile of snoring, farting and sleeptalking assholes.

 

Knowing it was a pointless fight she let the space be commondered for the betterment of the group but set the hard rule that no one was allowed to fuck up that apartment. And if she told them to fuck off they would. Sometimes a girl needed her space.  

 

So the apartment had been playfully dubbed The Den by Vogel and the Beast shortly after the decision to make it a common room. The name stuck and had kind of started to define what the small studio had become. The old furniture had been removed and new furniture brought in with the help of the small stipend Farah gave them for upkeep of the building. Now the living area was mostly just filled with an overstuffed couch, a few old arm chairs and a couple of comfy mattresses laid out on the floor with a mountain of blankets and pillows covering it all. It made the perfect place for exhausted Rowdies to curl up for a little nap after a long day of running amuck.

 

But the best part of The Den was the shower and the tankless water heater she’d had installed so they would be able to to take the longest, hottest showers they wanted. Which was always the first thing Amanda did when they got back to the Biltmore.

 

There were very few opportunities to get a good shower on the road and for that alone Amanda would happily kiss Farah for her gift. She’d kiss Farah for plenty of other reasons too but that was neither here nor there.

 

Ignoring the distant sounds of her friends having fun fucking shit up, Amanda locked herself in the small bathroom, pulled a small set of speakers from her duffle and plugged them into her phone. She set them all up on the back of the toilet and started up the playlist she’d made just for her shower hour before running the water in the tub and switching on the shower.

 

As steam started to build up in the small bathroom, fogging up the mirror and making the room hazy, the playlist started to ramp up. Bouncing to the rhythm, her hip swaying, Amanda stripped off her dirty clothes and threw them to the side. A couple towels got pulled out and tossed where she could easily reach them from the shower.

 

Before climbing under the spray she reached over and turned the music up. It would drown out any noise coming from the rest of the building and make sure she wasn’t distracted by whatever bullshit the others were getting up to. But it would also mask any sounds coming from the bathroom if any of the others decided to take a break from their mischief and chill in the main room. Which was pretty important when you didn’t want your very male companions to know what you were getting up to in the shower.

 

One of the downsides to traveling with five other people, four of which were guys, was that Amanda very rarely got any privacy. She’d gotten over any lingering embarrassment over bodily functions or nudity she might have had pretty quick because the boys did not give one flying fuck about about either.

 

Amanda had seen more dicks and hairy asses in that first month of traveling with the Rowdy 3 than she had in her whole life. And while they didn’t expect her to be as free and easy as they were they did have very loose ideas about personal space and tended to interrupt whenever she was trying to do anything that required privacy.  

 

Which led to Amanda using her shower hour to work out any _frustrations_ that might have built up while on the road.

 

And there were a lot of _frustrations_.

 

At least one set of the aforementioned dicks and hairy asses belonged to someone that she might be mildly in love with, and definitely more than lusted after. Though, his ass wasn’t all that hairy and was pretty nice to look at. Which was part of the problem really. It didn’t help that he was a ridiculous flirt that like to get her all flustered whenever the opportunity arose.

 

Which led to a considerable amount of her shower time being used to think about his ass. And hands. And mouth. And pretty much every inch of him. Oh and that sexy growl of a voice he had.

 

Yeah, she had a lot of things she liked to think about in the shower. So she took full advantage of the baring music and the privacy to do it.

 

When she was done, her limbs loose and more than a little shaky, Amanda took a second to catch her breath. Her face resting against the cool tile as she valiantly tried to get the shower head back on the base one handed. Eventually she had to give up and use both hands while leaning against the side of the shower since her legs weren’t doing a very good job of holding her up.

 

Once her legs were more solid and she felt more steady, Amanda moved on to the actual shower part of her shower. Scrubbing away every trace of van funk from her hair and body with vigorous determination. She loved the others but cramming six adults, sometimes more, into a van that had an AC that was mediocre at best was not a fun time and left her with a film of grime that absolutely had to go.

 

Grabbing one of the many bottles shoved on the shower rack, she popped the lid and poured out a copious amount into her hands and began to work it into her hair. Soon the steamy air of the bathroom was filled with the pleasant smell of violets and peaches as Amanda lathered up her hair.

 

She hoped the smell and time would help cover up any of the weird energy _scents_ that working out her frustration might have built up. The last thing she she wanted was the boys sniffing that out. So far there hadn’t been any comments to let her know if it worked or not and she was just going to assume that if it didn’t they were nice enough not to say anything.

 

Either way she really loved the rich scent of her shampoo and it had quickly become her favorite.

 

Gripps had found the heavenly shampoo on one of their many store raids and had presented it to her with a gentlemanly bow as they were going through their haul. When she’d looked at him in confusion he’d just winked at her. It wasn’t until she popped the cap and took a tentative sniff that she understood. If there was one person in the van that got Amanda’s need to be needlessly girly from time to time it was Gripps. From painting her nails to braiding her hair, the quiet Rowdy had never shied away from helping her pamper herself. And of course he would know exactly what scent of shampoo she’d like and think to grab some for her. He was such a sweetheart.

 

He’d even gone as far as to put the fear of god into the others if they dared use her special shampoo without permission. And nothing was funnier than the usually quiet man tackling one of the others and roughing them up when he caught the slightest whiff of it on them. For the most part the others had learned, well all except Vogel. He still had a habit of using it if she left it out.

 

Amanda laughed to herself as she ducked her head under the spray to rinse out her hair and thought about the last time Vogel had messed up. She had no idea anyone could throw a full grown man that far.

 

Shaking her head at the antics of her friends she finished rising out her hair and quickly rubbed some conditioner into it. After that Amanda spend a good long while scrubbing down with her special purple poof, happy to rub herself raw under the hot spray. The wonderful feeling of all the sweat and dirt from the past month washing away under the hot spray of the shower was heavenly and worth the sting.

 

Ten minutes later she switched off the shower, squeaky clean and feeling a thousand times better. The long strands of her hair stuck to her skin as she attempted to gather it up to wring out. After getting as much water as she could out of her hair she piled as much of it as she could on top of her head and she threw back the shower curtain. Grabbing the towel she’d thrown on the floor by the tub, she did a cursory drying of her body before she wrapped it around herself and climbed out.

 

Her feet dripped water onto the mat and she could feel the tickle of water trailing down her neck from her wet hair as she moved to turn down the music that was now just a touch too loud with the shower off. Once it was down she make out yelling and stomping and all manner of racket coming from her boys from somewhere nearby. Rolling her eyes she turned the music back up just enough to cover up the noise.

 

Standing in front of the foggy mirror Amanda sighed to herself and absently wiped away the condensation from the glass. Whatever the boys were doing they were being louder than normal and were too close to the Den. She’d have to growl at them about it when she was done.

 

Suddenly there was a bang loud enough to be heard over her music. Startled, Amanda waited, wondering if she should go check on her friends. Just as she moved to open the bathroom door there was laughter close enough to hear. Letting out a relieved but annoyed breath she adjusted her towel and rolled her eyes at her reflection.

 

Boys.

 

There were a few more sounds of destruction and laughter while Amanda looked over herself in the mirror, debating whether or not she needed to do her eyebrows and pulling up her wet hair to see if she needed to buzz her undercut.

 

Deciding that she probably could use a quick clip she dropped her hair and ran her fingers through it before she had to adjust her towel again. The damn thing kept trying to slip open. It was a damn nuisance and she would have just gone without it but growing up with a brother that had zero awareness as to when the bathroom was occupied had taught her that a towel was necessary when living with boys.

 

There was another really loud bang from somewhere in the building as Amanda looked around for the towel she knew she’d grabbed for her hair, but she chose to ignore it. She also ignored the sound of stomping feet getting closer as she spotted the towel behind her on the floor.

 

Shaking her head at herself at the racket her friends were making, she bent over to pick it up.

 

Several things happened at once after that, and Amanda swore it was like time slowed to a crawl during the next minute. Even the music still blaring on in the background seemed to slow down in her mind.

 

Right as she bent over her stupid fucking towel unwrapped itself and started to fall open.

 

As that was happening the stomping she’d erroneously ignored thundered up to the bathroom door. The door was then all but kicked in by a very panicked blonde Rowdy.

 

In shock Amanda stood up. Her traitorous towel did not come along but instead fell to the floor to pool around her feet. Leaving her bare ass naked in front of the one man that she would have under other circumstances been happy to be naked with.

 

Things seemed to go still for half a heart beat once the towel hit the ground.

 

Amanda, still reeling from the shock of the door banging open hadn’t really registered that her towel had jumped ship yet. What she did notice was how Martin blinked owlishly at her, shock clearly written on his face, lips parted in surprise. A cold burst of air hit her a second later from the hot air escaping the room and that’s when her state of complete undress dawned on her.

 

“Fuck!”

 

The word seemed to make time go back to normal as she dropped down to hastiy grab her towel and wrap it protectively around herself.

 

Face red, she couldn’t help yelling at Martin. No matter how big of a crush she might have had on him, it was not cool for him to just barge in here like that and catch the whole damn show.

 

So it was no surprise when the next words out her mouth were “What the fuck man?”

 

As she stood up, towel firmly wrapped around her and her hands gripping the edges to make them stay closed, she continued to yell at him, “What the fuck do you think you are doing? You can’t just-”

 

It was then that she caught sight of bright vivid red.

 

“Oh my god! Are you bleeding!” she all but screamed.

 

Martin’s brain seemed to come back online enough to look down at his hand, which was definitely covered in blood. There were droplets of the stuff dripping onto the floor. Splatters of red on his clothes and a smear of it on his glasses were clearly visible. So it was a bit of an understatement when he replied, “Uh, yeah?”

 

His tone was strangely off, the slightest kick up at the end. It made his answer feel like he was both distracted and unsure of how he should be responding.

 

Amanda blinked at his response and his tone. And the slightly lost way he was starting at his own hand. Frustration met the frantic concern bubbling up in her chest and she couldn’t help yelling, “Don’t answer a question about whether or not you’re bleeding with another question asshole!” as she quickly bent down and swiped the towel that was originally meant for her hair off the ground. In two quick strides she was stepping into Martin’s personal space and wrapping his hand in the towel.

 

He flinched back, pain screwing his face up into a wince, Amanda caught just a second of it but it was gone just as quickly as it appeared.

 

She squeezed his hand tight, causing another wince and a quiet hiss. “Sorry but you gotta keep pressure on it to stop the bleeding,” Amanda hissed back.

 

There was as a low hum of agreement from Martin and the sound made her look up from his hand.

 

When she caught sight of his face he looked a little better than he had when he slammed into the room. A lot less shell shocked maybe. The pain might have chased away some of it. But now he was watching her very intently.

 

Amanda knew the shock of seeing him bleeding had definitely pushed the embarrassment of him walking in on her to the back of her mind. But she was still desperately trying to not think about it and focus on his hand. The way he was looking at her was making it difficult though.

 

To make matters worse she had started to realize she was standing very very close to him in nothing but a towel.

 

And that realization had her wondering exactly how much he’d seen.

 

The logical part of her knew he’d seen it all. Every last inch. But a not so logical and much more hormonal part of her wondered if he’d liked what he’d seen…

 

There was a growl of pain from him as she accidentally squeezed his hand a little too hard at that thought.

 

“Oh. Sorry. Sorry,” she gasped as she looked back at where her hands were holding his towel wrapped hand. “I just meant to keep the pressure on it…” she trailed off has his uninjured hand came to rest on hers.

 

“This ain’t the first time I’ve been hurt Drummer. I know what to do.” His voice was very low, very quiet but even over the frantic beat of her music still playing in the background she could hear it clear as day.

 

His voice, the touch of his hand on hers, and the fact that she was basically nakend after having been fantasizing about him with the aid of the handheld shower head hit her all at the same time and she could feel the heat creep up into her face. “Uh…” All her words had fled and nothing seemed to want to come out. She felt like a dumb teenager with a weird crush on her handsome teacher all of a sudden.

 

It made her feel stupid.

 

This was Martin. He was her friend. She could talk to him.

 

So what if she was twenty minutes out from a really intense orgasm courtesy of some really dirty thoughts about his hands?

 

So what if not two minutes ago he’d seen her completely naked?

 

So what if she was standing really close to him wet and just wearing a towel.

 

A towel that was seriously starting to annoy her. It kept slipping loose the most inconvenient times. Like right then.

 

The damn thing decided to start to slip open as Martin continued to watch her. Luckily she caught it before it could completely come loose and give him a very up close and personal look at her goods.

 

As she slipped her hand out from under his to grab her traitorous towel she thought she felt him squeeze her hand for a half a second. But she decided she had imagined it because as soon as she had a grip on her towel he was clearing his throat and saying “Why don’t you get dressed? I can go sit,” he nodded toward the main couch in The Den and gestured with his bundled up hand. “I’ll keep the pressure on this. Bring the kit with you when you’re done?”

 

Before she could answer he’d turned and was gone leaving Amanda standing alone in the bathroom. Her hands hands still clutching her towel and her face bright red. “Ok then,” she whispered to herself as she carefully shut the door and leaned her head against it.

 

She stood there for a good minute her breath beating back at her as she tried to calm down and get a handle on herself like the strong defiant bitch she knew she was. When she felt more herself she pushed off the door to get dressed.

 

No sense keeping Martin’s injury waiting longer than he had too. Someone had to patch the poor bastard up. It might as well be her.

 

It took her a couple minutes to get her clothes on, the dampness of her skin making it harder than it needed to be. But it gave her a little bit of time to figure out what to do about her damn crush.

 

By the time she swung the door open, dressed and with the first-aid kit in hand, Amanda knew she was done being the flustered one all the time. She wasn’t some schoolgirl with a crush, she was a grown ass woman with adult wants and needs. So next time she had the opportunity she was gonna pay Martin back for all the times he’d left her blushing and stuttering.

 

And while it would be tempting to do it while she was patching him up, she knew it would be better to wait. Let today’s little incident fade a bit, for both their sakes, and then make her move at the right time.

 

She just had to wait.

  
  


Amanda was chilling on the couch in The Den, reading a trashy magazine while the others were off doing whatever the hell they were doing. So far it was a relatively quiet day, if such a thing existed with the Rowdy 3. It was nice. Especially after the last few days.

 

After the “Towel Debacle” as she was mentally calling it, things didn’t really calm down.

 

As she patched up Martin’s hand she found out that he’d slashed it open after one of the others had knocked him off course during their destruct-o time. He’d lost his balance and caught himself on the frame of one of the many doors that they had knocked the glass out of. Unfortunately there was still enough glass in the frame to slice his hand to shit. When he’d started bleeding the others panicked.

 

Martin had sheepishly admitted that he’d been a little freaked out himself. It had been a long time since he’d done that much damage to himself and the panic of the others hadn’t helped. It was the only reason he could think of for why he had barged in on her so unexpectedly. He’d been frantic to get to the first aid kit she had insisted they keep stashed there. Kicking the door down had just been instinct. What happened after was just a huge mistake. He’d started apologizing for the whole thing after that.

 

Amanda had been amazed to see him blush just the tiniest bit as he rambled on about respecting her privacy when it came to things like that and yada yada. She had kind of stopped paying attention because the slight pink tint to his cheeks meant her plan to make him flustered might not be as hard as she thought.

 

Right around the time that Martin started to catch on that she wasn’t really listening to him the others filed into the room.

 

The calm that Amanda had been working on Martin’s hand in disappeared in a flash as they all started talking. Some trying to explain what had happened, one of them, she wasn’t quite sure which, apologizing to Martin for pushing him, Beast just making straight up noise.

 

And that sorta set the mood for the next few days.

 

It was absolute chaos. It was like since Martin was benched while his hand healed the others had to make up for his lack of rowdiness by being ten times as rowdy.

 

It was sort of sweet in a completely exasperating way.

 

For his part Martin took it easy. Or as easy as you could expect the de facto leader of a band of crazy vampiric punk vagabonds to be. Mostly he just followed the others around while they got up to mischief, drinking a beer with a cigarette between his lips, watching in amusement. Breaking something on occasion just so the others didn’t think he felt left out..

 

He also slept a lot. Like a lot a lot.

 

She asked Gripps and Cross about it one day and they said it was just something they did when they got hurt. It helped. Feeding did too but only if they got to sleep after.

 

Remembering Vogel and how messed up he’d been in Wendimoor after that fuck-nut Priest had broken his fingers, Amanda understood. So it was no surprise to her when she had an attack and the others let Martin take the whole thing. He passed right the fuck out after that.

 

But he did seem to be getting better. So that was good. Once the others could tell he was getting better things settled down to their normal craziness.

 

Today being the most chill so far. Most of the others were out doing god knows what, though Amanda was pretty sure Cross had gone shopping. For what exactly she wasn’t sure. With everyone out it was just her and Martin in The Den.

 

The injured man was in the bathroom. He’d muttered at her a while ago that he was going to shower. Amanda had heard the shower running for a bit earlier but it was been a while since then and he still hadn’t come out.

 

Amanda wanted to be concerned but given that she made them all leave her alone so she could have some private time to herself she was inclined to leave him be. She was pretty sure if something was up he’d call for her.

 

“Shit!”

 

The curse wasn’t very loud but still Amanda heard it clearly through the door to the bathroom. A second later there was the sound of something heavy hitting the floor and more muttered curses.

 

Ok, that was a little more concerning so she got up and padded over. They still hadn’t fixed the lock so the door was just slightly ajar when she knocked on it softly. “Hey, everything okay in there?”

 

Expecting nothing more than a growly yeah or even just a hum of agreement, she was unprepared for the door to swing open and reveal a slightly dewy and mostly naked Martin.

 

Amanda had jumped back from the door when it swung open and it left her with a fantastic view of older man. One of the bright yellow towels she kept the bathroom stocked with was slung low on his hips and he kept a casual hold on it with his bandaged hand. There were still some errant water droplets doting his chest, a couple were slowly inching their way down his surprisingly toned body.

 

She’d seen it plenty of times before but never this up close.

 

Usually she tried to make herself scarce when the boys decided they were done being filthy vagabonds and they stripped down to wash in any clean water source they could find. And while putting some distance between herself and a herd of naked punks helped, it didn’t save her from catching more than an eyeful from them all the time.

 

Even Martin.

 

So she had seen what was on display, and what was under that obscenely bright towel, before but it didn’t mean she didn’t appreciate the view now.

 

It was a nice view.

 

A very nice view.

 

A very nice view of a man that she was supposed to be checking on and not checking out.

 

Realizing that she had been very obviously staring, Amanda mental shook herself before looking Martin in the eye. He had a wolfish grin and a cocked eyebrow plastered on his face like some roguish hero in a romance novel.

 

“Nearly had to point out that my eyes were up here Drummer,” he softly chuckled at her as he gestured to his face with his free hand. Which turned out not to be very free because there was a pair of electric clippers in his hand. Her clippers to be precise.

 

Completely ignoring his teasing tone and that he was standing there mostly naked, Amanda pointed at the clippers in his hand. “What are you doing with those?”

 

Martin looked down at his hand, a dumbfounded expression on his face at her sudden change of topic.

 

In that moment Amanda remembered why she had decided to check on him in the first place. “Wait. Is that what I heard fall?” she asked with slight panic in her voice. There was a second of silence as she impatiently waited for an answer before she all but snatched the clippers out of his hand and inspected them.

 

Amanda was more than a little protective of her clippers.

 

They were her clippers. Vogel stole them just for her. She only let the others borrow them on the condition that they wouldn’t brake them. Usually she could trust Martin to treat them right, but apparently not this time.

 

She shot him a dirty glare that had him rearing back a little, clearly not expecting her to be so grumpy with him.

 

He sighed as she went back to checking over her clippers. When he spoke his tone was very different than it was before. No more teasing. No more flirting. “I, uh, I wanted to trim my beard.” He motioned to his chin and Amanda noticed that he was looking a lot scruffier than normal. He made a sound of irritation and growled, “But with my damn hand like this, “ he held up his injured hand, “makes it difficult to do much. And there’s no way I can do it one handed.” He nodded toward the clippers in her hand. “As you can tell.”

 

At his sardonic tone Amanda felt a twinge of guilt. She might have overreacted just a little bit. Looking up at him from her clippers she could see the little line between his brows was slightly deeper than normal and that made her feel like an asshole. It only did that when something was bothering him and he didn’t want to say anything.

 

She had to make it up to him somehow.

 

Looking back down at her hands she got an idea. “Hey,” Amanda said softly but loud enough to catch Martin’s attention, “take a seat.” She nodded into the bathroom.

 

Martin's eyes followed where she nodded but then came back to rest on her face. When she noticed his confused look she rolled her eyes at him. “I’m going to trim your beard for you,” she explained, shaking the clippers in her hand in emphasis.

 

A look of understanding came over him and she knew he got that this was her way of apologizing. “Sure thing Drummer,” he said as he gave her a slight quirk of his lips before turning to take a seat on the toilet seat.

 

It wasn’t until Amanda had to step over Martin’s discarded dirty clothes to get to where he was sitting that she realized this might be a little awkward. He was very naked under that thin yellow towel. She was pretty certain he seemed to realize it too as he shifted on the seat. A slight tint of pink had started to color his cheeks and he fussed with his towel like he wasn’t sure it was covering enough.   
  
It was, but just barely. A good stretch of his inner thigh was clearly visible from where the two ends of the towel refused to meet. As Amanda moved closer he closed his legs, obviously trying to not flash her more than necessary. Which was funny considering the amount of times she’d seen him dressed in much less.   
  
Then again this was under very different circumstances.      
  
And while she could appreciate Martin’s sudden need for modesty, closing his legs was the opposite of what she needed. It would be much easier to get close enough to trim his beard if she could stand between his knees. The only way she’d be able to do it now was if she straddled his lap.

 

The sudden heat that flooded her face at the very thought was crazy. She was sure Martin could feel the heat from where he sat. At the very least he had to had noticed that her face was red as fuck.  

 

But when she glanced up from where she’d been looking down at his thighs she saw that he was looking off to side, his focus on something near the floor by the tub. A pretty pink flush gracing his cheeks.  

 

Amanda was surprised. Martin actually looked kinda bashful.

 

Oh god! she thought, this is the perfect time to get my revenge. He was already blushing, it wouldn’t be that hard to push him into being flustered. She just had to go slow. She didn’t want him to get too embarrassed, she wasn’t a bully.   

 

Deciding now was the time, and realizing that part of what made Martin’s flirtations so effective was his cool demeanor, Amanda felt herself calm down. Gone was the heat in her cheeks and in its place a slight smirk as she nudged his bare foot with her own.

 

The touch seemed to startle Martin and he quickly looked down at his foot before immediately up to her, a look of mild confusion on his face.

 

Taking this as her chance to start off on the right foot she replied to his unspoken question with, “I can’t get close enough like this. I need to stand between them,” she nudged his knee with her own a coy smile on her lips. “Unless you want me to sit in your lap?” she asked with just a touch of teasing.

 

Amanda had to give it to Martin, he was good at this not reacting thing. The only thing that gave away how much her suggestion got to him was the slight deepening of the pink on his cheeks and the very subtle way he swallowed. He didn’t even have to clear his throat when he said, “Oh, sorry Drummer,” in that low tone of his.

 

She was going to have to work a little harder at it, then. Good, Amanda liked a challenge.

 

As Martin carefully maneuvered his towel to keep himself covered while he made room from her between his knees, Amanda considered her next move. How much would be considered pushing too far? she wondered.

 

As she thought it over,  Martin finally seemed to get as comfortable as he was going to get with his towel. He settled into himself, shoulders slumped forward and his chin tipped up to give her a better angle to work with. He flashed her a soft smile that she returned with a quiet snort of amusement.

 

Taking a step into the space he’d made for her, her eyes drifted down to the hem of the towel as it barely brushed against her thighs. There was the slightest shifting of his legs as he spread them just a touch wider. Looking down at the sunny yellow material that barely reached his knees and was doing a pretty piss poor job of giving Martin any decency, Amanda smiled at the sudden idea that popped into her head.

 

She glanced up to see him watching her intently before she very obviously looked back down at the towel. Slowly she pressed a little more into the space between his legs, just enough to have the towel catching on her jeans and dragging the cloth against his thighs.

 

If the room hadn’t been as still as it was Amanda never would’ve heard his quiet intake of breath. Martin’s lips were very softly parted when she looked up at him to see if there was sign that her little tease was successful. Deciding that she could probably push it just a little further before backing of she caught his eye and gave him a slow playful smile.

 

His eyes widened just a fraction before she reached up and gripped him by the chin to inspect his beard. “Let’s see what we’re dealing with,” she said briskly as she turned his head this way and that.

 

If she hadn’t been right there, or playing such close attention to his face she would have missed the way he flushed very red at the way she manhandled him. It was a struggle to keep the surprise off her face at his reaction, but she just barely managed it. Filing that little nugget away for use in the shower later, Amanda tried to concentrate on her original plan.

 

Making up for her little snapfest by trimming his beard for him.

 

Putting aside her precious clippers for a moment she inspected Martin’s beard. She ignored the way he faintly swallowed as she ran her finger through the coarse hair to test the length. After a little while she broke the silence with “How short do you want it? It’s pretty long right now.”

 

This time Martin did have to clear his throat before he answered. “Uh, ju-just the usual length.” His voice seemed to catch in his throat and didn’t have the usual growl to it. Amanda’s eyebrows raised at his tone but she left it alone.

 

She couldn’t be sure but she was willing to bet the whole situation was slowly starting to push Martin’s buttons.

 

Good.

 

She gave his beard a playful tug that had his eyes fluttering shut briefly. Which was delightfully unexpected. “It’ll be easier to use the scissors than the clippers. That cool?” she asked, again ignoring his reaction to her messing with his beard.

 

“Sounds good Drummer.” This time Martin’s voice was noticeably strained, with just a touch of roughness to it.

 

Amanda mentally high fived herself as she moved to grab the scissors he’d obviously discarded earlier in favor of the clippers. This was going better than she expected. The way he was reacting was waaaaay more than she would have thought. Who would have guessed the man had a bit of a submissive streak?

 

Facing him again, scissors in hand, she caught a brief flash of heat in his eyes before he blinked and they settled back into their usual ice blue. It looked like someone took the opportunity to gather that iron sense of control. Well, Amanda would see how long that lasted.

 

For a few minutes it was very quiet in the bathroom as Amanda started trimming. She worked slowly not wanting to rush. She could admit to herself that it was a little thrilling to be this close. Doing something that felt rather intimate in the setting they found themselves in. There were still little drops of water drying on Martin’s shoulders. She could nearly feel him radiating heat and the rhythm of his breathing was soothing. Of course she was still very aware that he was in nothing but the towel but she’d managed to sort of push that to the back of her mind. More important was the surprisingly intimate silence they’d fallen into.

 

She and Martin got along pretty well. They’d had plenty of conversations over the months. And when he wasn’t trying to tease and flirt things were usually easy between them. But this was different. Somehow.

 

“You’re thinking pretty hard there Drummer,”  Martin mumbled into the silence. He kept his jaw from moving too much but he quirked a slight smile at her. There was still a tint of pink to his cheeks that made Amanda smile as she took a step back to look at him.

 

He looked so sweet sitting there, still trying to keep his towel in place but there was a easiness to him now. The flush on his cheeks helped but it was how much he’d relaxed since she’d sat him down that really struck her.

 

He looked, he looked…

 

The softest touch to her bare arm startled her out of how intently she’d been staring at him. “Amanda?” The question was low, “What you thinkin’?”

 

Suddenly feeling caught, like he could see right through her.  See what she wanted. Which he probably could, to an extent.

 

Amanda panicked.

 

In the best possible way.

 

Gripping him by the back of the head he pulled him into a hard kiss.

 

He made a rough sound in his throat at the feel of her lips pressing into his as she sighed.

 

It was objectively not a good kiss. Too hard, too rushed, too much teeth.

 

But it was also the best kiss. Because it was the first. And Amanda had made the first move.

 

Her mother would be so proud.

 

“Drummer.” Martin whispered, voice rough as he pulled back. The word was dropped into the silence she’d left them both in and shattered it quite effectively.

 

“Yeah?” she responded, feeling breathless and light headed.

 

“Can I kiss you again?” The question was all but growled against her cheek.

 

“Please do.”

 

Martin wasted no time worrying about his towel after that.

  
  
  


Amanda was feeling smug. Very smug. She knew she was probably flooding The Den with the smell-scent of whatever smug smelled/tasted like but she didn’t care. Her hands were carding Martin’s hair as he rested his head against her thigh while he slept off his latest bout of healing. And it was really fucking nice.

 

He’d been so very eager and sweet during their little make session in the bathroom but Amanda had put the breaks on and called it quits before things got a little out of hand. It had left Martin a little out of sorts and once again worrying about his towel.

 

But there was no hiding _that_ under a thin towel, no matter how brightly colored.

 

So she’d left him, cheeks flushed and flustered as all get out and called it a win.

 

When Martin came out of the bathroom, dressed but still flushed, he was a bit awkward as he came as sat with her on the mattresses. There was a reason Amanda blared her music when she showered  and later, when she wasn’t feeling so smug she’d share that tip with Martin for future reference.

 

But she was kind enough in the moment to not comment and he relaxed soon enough. Enough for them to fall back into a bit of the intimate silence from before the kiss. He curled against her and before she knew it her hand was in his hair and he was fast asleep.

 

And that’s exactly how the others found them when they all came barreling into the room like a hurricane of bodies. They rushed around and threw themselves on all available soft surfaces and curled against her and Martin like a pile of puppies.

 

It was just the right kind of weird. The kinda strange comfort that came from her little messed up family. And now there was an added layer with Martin that made it just perfect.

 

Of course nothing lasts forever.

 

“Martin,” Gripps growled. The older Rowdy shifted, no longer sleeping but still drowsy, and hmmed in question.

 

“You use Amanda’s shampoo? ‘Cause you smell an awful like it, man” Again the words were growled and everyone went still. They all knew what that tone meant.

 

Within seconds Martin was up and running, knowing that Gripps was about to mistakenly start a fight over shampoo when the answer was a lot less innocent.

 

Gripps, who was surprising fast, was right on his tail.

 

There was a the sound of bodies colliding and a loud yelp out in the hall. The others ran to see and back in The Den Amanda just cackled.

 

Best trip to Seattle ever.

  
  
  



End file.
